This article is part of our FanDuel PGA DFS Picks series.
Valero Texas Open
Course: TPC San Antonio Oaks Course (7,438 yards, par 72)
Purse: $9,500,000
Winner: $1,710,000 and 500 FedExCup points
Tournament Preview
The second leg of this Texas two-step will see the PGA Tour head West on I-10 from Houston to San Antonio for the Valero Texas Open. The Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio will return for another year having hosted this event since 2010. The Texas Open dates back to 1922 when Bob MacDonald won the first edition. It has seen a number of great champions over the years, but Arnold Palmer and Justin Leonard are the only men to have won it three times, although Zach Johnson and Corey Conners can join that list this week.
While the focus is on the Valero Texas Open, it's hard to not have one eye on The Masters next week. We saw Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy post top-five finishes in their final Masters tuneup last week in Houston. This time around in San Antonio we will see top players like Ludvig Aberg, Hideki Matsuyama and Tommy Fleetwood look to find some form and get into contention before The Masters. The field for Augusta now stands at 96 players, which is the most we've seen since 2015. One more spot is available in San Antonio should a winner emerge that was not previously exempt. That happened a year ago when Akshay Bhatia defeated Denny McCarthy in a playoff.
The Valero Texas Open is also the final event that will determine the Aon Swing 5 who makes it into the RBC Heritage signature event the week after Augusta. The Puerto Rico Open, Valspar Championship and Texas Children's Houston Open are the other events that make up this Swing 5. Karl Vilips, Gary Woodland, Sami Valimaki, Davis Riley and Ryo Hisatsune. Bud Cauley is the first man out and will hope to move himself into the field at Hilton Head with a good showing in San Antonio. The Aon Next 10 will be finalized after The Masters, but that list features 2025 winners in Nick Taylor, Min Woo Lee, Joe Highsmith and Harris English.
Weather was a topic of discussion last week in Houston and it looks like we're going to get some of it this week as well in San Antonio. Storms are expected to roll in Thursday evening and affect the play on Friday into Saturday morning. Another delay is certainly a possibility if lightning gets close to the course. The good news is that Saturday afternoon into Sunday should be clear, although temperatures are expected cool down quite a bit. The wind is always the primary defense of this course, and while there will be some to contend with at times, I'd still expect to see a winning score in the upper-teens.
Recent Champions
2024 - Akshay Bhatia (-20)
2023 - Corey Conners (-15)
2022 - J.J. Spaun (-13)
2021 - Jordan Spieth (-18)
2020 - No Tournament
2019 - Corey Conners (-20)
2018 - Andrew Landry (-17)
2017 - Kevin Chappell (-12)
2016 - Charley Hoffman (-12)
2015 - Jimmy Walker (-11)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Total Driving
- SG: Approach/GIR percentage
- SG: Around-the-Green/Scrambling
- Proximity 150-175 Yards/Proximity 175-200 Yards
Champion's Profile
The first concern at the Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio is off the tee. You've got to drive it well to score on this course. The fairways are on the wider end, but there's plenty of penal fairway bunkers and trees that can derail a good round. There hasn't been a lot of guys known for their length that have won here since the debut of this course in 2010, but a lot of them had a very strong week in SG: Off-the-Tee and hit fairways consistently. The amount of wind that players have to deal with on this course always creates a lot of challenges on the approach shots. Typically there are going to be some longer clubs into these greens, and players need to be able to drive shots through the wind. These greens also normally play quite firm, so ball striking will really be at a premium this week.
The the difficulties of hitting greens, that will mean quite a few scrambling opportunities. I think this is one of the trickier courses to pitch it close. There's a lot of very deep green-side bunkers, which you don't normally see. There's also a number of runoff areas that will are quite challenging as well, especially pitching to elevated greens and pins that they can put right next to be slopes. We'll see quite a few three-putts this week because of the undulation and size of the greens. You can't fake it around this place, and often the top few players on the leaderboard are able to stretch away from the rest of the field, because the players hitting it the best get rewarded. Two years ago when Conners won for the second time, the top-four finishers on the leaderboard ranked 1-4 in SG: Approach. Last year Bhatia and Denny McCarthy were the top two players in SG: Tee-to-Green.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Corey Conners ($11,800)
Conners comes into the Valero Texas Open ready to win it for a third time. His form of late has been extremely good, finishing 3rd-T6-T8 over his last three starts. He has gained strokes across the board in all of those tournaments, including quite significantly off the tee and on approach. Conners ranks pretty highly in all the mid-to-long range proximity buckets, which bodes well considering we normally see longer clubs into greens on this course.
Patrick Cantlay ($11,600)
Cantlay is quietly having a very strong year. He currently ranks 47th-or-better in every strokes gained category, and leads the PGA Tour in par-5 scoring, typically a very good area to separate yourself at TPC San Antonio. Cantlay is also third in GIR percentage and sixth in birdie average. He will be making his debut in San Antonio, but given his balance through the bag and the fact he has finished T33 or better in 13 straight events, I'm expecting a strong week for a man looking for his first win since 2022.
Keegan Bradley ($10,900)
Bradley has been one of the ball-striking leaders in 2025. He ranks top-25 in SG: Off-the-Tee, total driving, SG: Approach, proximity this season. It's one of the reasons why he has missed just one cut over the last calendar year. Since his win at the BMW Championship last August, Bradley owns four top-10s and eight top-25s in 10 starts. He's only missed one cut in six career starts at TPC San Antonio and owns a pair of top-10s.
The Middle Tier
Daniel Berger ($10,400)
Berger resurrecting his career has been one of the great stories of 2025. He comes into the week having finished T2-12th-T25-T15-T20 in his last five starts, which helped him jump back into the top 50 of the OWGR and earn a spot at The Masters. Berger's consistency through the bag this season has been impressive ranking fifth in total driving, 22nd in proximity, 13th in SG: Around-the-Green and 45th in SG: Putting.
Bud Cauley ($9,800)
Right in that same vein as Berger is Cauley, who has had an unbelievable comeback in his own right. He has made the cut in seven of his last eight starts with five top-30s, including finishes of T6 and T4 in his last two tournaments. Cauley ranked second in SG: Approach at the Valspar gaining over eight shots to the field. He is top-five in both SG: Total and adjusted scoring average this season and you can get him for under $10K. Cauley also owns a pair of top-20s at the Oaks course.
Lee Hodges ($9,200)
After missing nearly two months, Hodges was able to return from a rib injury at the Houston Open where he showed little signs of rust and finished T11. It was his eighth straight made cut with five top-16 finishes in that stretch. Hodges checks all the boxes for me at fourth in total driving, 33rd in GIR percentage, 13th in scrambling and sixth in SG: Putting. He's also second in both par-4 and par-5 scoring, and finished T6 here two years ago.
The Long Shots
Isaiah Salinda ($8,600)
Salinda seems to have found his groove in his rookie season. He has made his last six cuts and is coming off a T11 last week at the Houston Open with his best iron play performance of the year. Salinda's driving ability immediately puts him in the discussion at TPC San Antonio ranking sixth in both SG: Off-the-Tee and total driving this season. He's also a great DFS option at 13th in birdie or better conversion percentage.
Sami Valimaki ($8,300)
Valimaki has made his last five cuts and is coming off his second-best finish on the PGA Tour at the Houston Open where he ended up solo fourth. His iron play is really trending having gained 1.15, 1.11 and 2.04 strokes per round on approach over his last three tournaments. Valimaki ranks 16th on the season in SG: Approach and SG: Putting, which is certainly a strong combination.
Steven Fisk ($7,500)
I think I've hammered home the importance of ball striking to this point, so why not take the PGA Tour leader in the Ball-Striking stat? That would be Fisk who is first in total driving and fifth in GIR percentage. The 27-year-old checks in at a bargain bin price coming off a T17, T4 and T28 in his last five starts. Fisk is also 27th in SG: Around-the-Green and leads the Tour in total eagles this season with 10.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
While there are some strong names at the top, I think there's a lot of solid options all the way through this field, which really opens up the lineup building options to DFS players. Anyone that has flashed off the tee or on approach this season I think is in play at this course. I think it will be a little different than Memorial Park last week where you could focus a lot on short game and putting. TPC San Antonio tends to consistently reward those that are hitting it the best that week. The four par-5s are traditionally pretty difficult, but if you're hitting it well birdie and eagle chances will certainly be a possibility. If you're looking for some horses for courses options with value give Charley Hoffman ($9,300), Chris Kirk ($8,900) and Matt Kuchar ($8,800) a try.
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